A number of therapies involve neural stimulation, including the stimulation or inhibition of nerve traffic in motor and autonomic nerves. A sympathetic response can be achieved by inhibiting nerve traffic in a parasympathetic nerve target. A parasympathetic response can be achieved by inhibiting nerve traffic in a sympathetic nerve target. Inhibiting parasympathetic nerve traffic, for example, would serve to reduce the impact of the parasympathetic nervous system on an autonomically-regulated function and thereby increase sympathetic influences, either directly through reduction in parasympathetic activity or indirectly through reduction in reciprocal inhibition. Examples of neural stimulation (or neurostimulation) therapies include neural stimulation therapies for respiratory problems such as sleep disordered breathing, blood pressure control such as to treat hypertension, cardiac rhythm management, myocardial infarction and ischemia, heart failure, epilepsy, depression, pain, migraines, eating disorders and obesity, and movement disorders.
Improved systems and methods for controlling neural traffic are needed.